Birmingham City have welcomed Craig Gardner to St Andrew's after confirming that the midfielder has completed a £3 million move from local rivals Aston Villa.

Gardner, 23, has signed a four-and-a-half year deal with Birmingham and becomes Alex McLeish's second signing of the January transfer window after the arrival of fellow midfielder Michel from Sporting Gijon.

Kevin Hughes spent the best part of ten years working and writing for the football magazine Match; once (sort of) inspiring David Beckham to copy his shaved-hair look, getting lost in Paris after the 1998 France v Croatia World Cup semi-final and other such nonsense. As Deputy Editor, he launched and established Sport, the London-based free weekly magazine, before moving on to become a consumer magazine publisher, a position he holds today. Introduced to Villa by his father and grandfather, he attended his first ever match at Villa Park as a seven-year-old in 1982… and has suffered almost constant disappointment since. You can follow him on twitter @KevHughesie